The present invention relates to wire management systems for furniture, particular office furniture, such as conference/training tables or workstations. More specifically, the invention concerns a wire management apparatus incorporated into a leg of the office furniture.
The plethora of electrical equipment used in most office environments presents a nettlesome problem, namely the problem of managing the seemingly endless array of electrical wires and data cables associated with the equipment. For example, a typical workstation personal computer will include power cables for the computer, printer and monitor, data cables between each of these components, networking cables, phone lines, and even wires associated with audio components of more sophisticated work stations. This problem is compounded where multiple workstations are involved, such as in a conference or training facility. Many such facilities utilize a number of large tables having multiple workstations. In these circumstances, the number of wires and cables that must be managed can be daunting.
Many articles of business furniture incorporate bezels formed in the working surface of the furniture through which the wires and cables pass. These bezels help clear the working surface of electrical wiring, but do little to solve the overall wire management problem. Many multiple workstation tables incorporate wire management features that channel the wires and cables through raceways attached to the table. While these raceways go a step further in clearing the working area of loose wires, these components still leave the problem of carrying the wires to wall outlets to power up the workstation electronics. The raceway suffers from the detriment common to the furniture wire bezel in which the wires still dangle from the furniture on their path to the wall outlet. These dangling wires and cables pose a risk that a workstation operator will unwittingly become tangled in the wiring. Moreover, the exposed wiring is generally aesthetically displeasing.
Consequently, there remains a need in the field of wire management for a system to virtually eliminate all dangling and exposed wires and cables. The optimum goal is to provide a system that emulates a fully hidden hard-wired approach in the arena of movable and/or stowable furniture.